AMA boss suggests rethink of GP co-payment

The head of the Australian Medical Association has suggested a rethink of the federal government's deeply unpopular GP co-payment.

Michael Gannon says the problem with the co-payment - declared "dead, buried and cremated" by the government last year - was that it didn't give GPs the opportunity to make a judgment about which patients could afford it.

"I'm happy that anything can be on the table but we cannot have policy that doesn't protect the most vulnerable," he told ABC radio on Friday.

It's a change of tune from that of Dr Gannon's predecessor Brian Owler, who was vehemently opposed to the co-payment and drove the powerful campaign that led to its scrapping.

Dr Gannon also took a swipe at the government's reluctance to talk about health during the election campaign, insisting Health Minister Sussan Ley was silenced.

He said Labor's Medicare scare campaign took hold because previous government policies had created fertile ground.